Seat-belt buckle



Jan. 19, 1965 J. H. LOWER $165,805

SEAT-BELT BUCKLE Filed June 1, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet l I NVENTOR.

25 a 2 l 22 J4me H. LOWER FIG.3 BY fl ATTORNEY Jan. 19, 1965 J. H. LOWER 3,165,805

SEAT-BELT BUCKLE Filed June 1, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 80 65 (F7// 5 3 IO I8 I? 52 70 2O 22 INVENTOR. ,JAMES H. LOWER- 254030 BY 2 g F 7 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,165,805 SEAT-BELT BUCKLE James H. Lower, Puiaski, Va., assignor, by mesne'assignments, to Three G Corporation, Akron, Ohio, 21 corporation of Ohio Filed June 1, 1962, Ser. No. 199,515 3 Claims. (Cl. 24230) This invention relates to a seat-belt buckle of the type generally referred to as a metal-to-metal contact buckle, meaning that a metal buckle is attached to one end of the seat belt, and to the other end is attached a metal tongue which is readily locked in the buckle, and also readily separated therefrom.

The buckle includes a base and a pin parallel to the base and near its front; One end of the belt is adjustably attached to the rear of the buckle, and the other is attached to a tongue which is engageable by a lock in the buckle when slipped into the front of the buckle between the pin and the base of the buckle. The lock is pivotally mounted about the axis of the pin, and a protuberance on the lock, preferably one edge of the lock, is spring-pressed against a rearwardly facing abutment portion on the base, preferably the rearwardly facing edge of an opening in the base. If the tongue is slipped over the base against the lock it lifts it and when the tongue is moved further into the buckle the protuberance on the lock passes through an opening in the tongue to hold it in place. A cam handle also pivotally mounted concentric with the pin can be pivoted against the lock to move it out of locking engagement with the tongue.

The invention is further described in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which- FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective of the two ends of a belt with a buckle and tongue attached to the respective ends thereof;

FIGURE 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line 33 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is an outside view of the end of the right side of the buckle as shown in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a section of the buckle similar to that shown in FIGURE 2 but with the tongue inserted part way in the buckle and lifting the lock part way by engagement with the boss on the underside of the lock;

FIGURE 6 is a similar section with the tongue inserted further in the buckle and the lock lifted further with the tongue located under it; and

FIGURE 7 is a section on the line 77 of FIGURE 2.

The respective ends 5 and 6 of the belt are attached to the buckle 7 and tongue 8. The end 6 is simply passed through the opening 10 in the tongue and then folded back, and the two portions of the belt are fastened together by sewing or other suitable means 11. In the forward portion of the tongue is the opening 13 through which the protruding end 15 of the lock 16 is pivoted in and out of engagement with the rearwardly facing edge 17 of the opening 18 in the base 20 of the buckle, for engagement and disengagement of the tongue by the buckle. The opening 13 in the tongue is large enough to accommodate the boss 22 on the underside of the lock 16 when the tongue is inserted all of the way in the buckle and the protruding end 15 of the lock is engaged with the edge 17 of the opening in the base.

The base 20 and ears or sides 24 and 25 of the buckle are preferably formed from sheet steel, as is customary in the manufacture of seat-belt buckles. One end of the pin 27 is inserted in the circular opening 28 in the ear 24. The opening 30 in the ear 25 is in two parts (FIG- URF. 4) with the diametrical bar 31 separating the two parts. The other end of the pin is bifurcated into the parts 33 and 34 which straddle the bar 31 in the ear 25 lice I and this keeps the pin from rotating. The pin is held in position by the split ring 35 (FIGURES 3 and 7).

The pin, shown as cylindrical, may be square or of any shape.

the openings 41 and 42. The cover plate 38 partially encircles the pin and the edge 47 is adapted to make contact with the end 48 of the lock 16 when it is desired to unlock the tongue.

The lock 16 is formed of sheet steel also, or die cast,

and the edges are bent up to form the ears 50 and 51, each of which is provided with a circular opening that accommodates the pin 27. Thus the cover plate 38 and the lock 16 are separately pivotal about the pin.

The coil spring 55 encircles the pin. One end 56 presses the protruding end 15 of the lock toward engagement with the edge '17 of the base of the buckle. 57 of the coil spring is located between the portions 33 and 34 of the bifurcated end of the pin. The pin is maintained in a stationary position because it straddles the bar 31 and therefore the spring with one end engaged in the pin exerts constant pressure against the lock 16 tending to seat the protruding end 15 against the edge 17 of the opening in the base. When the handle 45 is lifted the edge 47 engages the edge 48 of the lock and moves the lock to the position shown in dot-dash lines in FIGURE 2, lifting the protruding end 15 out of engagement with the edge 17 of the opening so that the tongue 8 can be readily moved out of locking engagement with the buckle.

Referring now to FIGURES 5 and 6, it is seenthat as the tongue 8 is inserted into the front end of the buckle the front end 60 makes contact with the slanting edge 62 of the boss 22 in the lock. Pressure on the tongue thus lifts the lock bymoving the boss upward to the position shown in FIGURE 5. As the tongue is further inserted in the buckle and before the boss 22 drops into the opening 13, the rearwardly extending end 6t) of the tongue presses against the protruding end 15 of the lock and lifts the lock further as shown in FIGURE 6, so that the tongue can be moved further toward the rear of the buckle until finally the pressure of the end 56 of the spring 55 against the lock causes the protruding end to swing down through the opening 13 of the tongue into engagement with the edge 17 of the opening 18 in the base of the buckle.

Thus the tongue becomes engaged in the buckle as shown in FIGURE 2. The outer surface 65 of the protruding end 15 of the lock describes a circle concentric with the pin 27 so that the buckle can be opened under load by simply pulling on the handles 45 to permit quick release in case of a wreck. However, when the tongue is locked in the buckle, as in FIGURE 2, any pull exerted on the tongue to remove it from the buckle presses the protruding end of the lock 15 into firmer contact with the edge 17 of the opening 18 in the base of the buckle. The lock of course carries a load from one end thereof to the other, but the load-bearing portion, as that term is used herein, is the reversely bent portion which transmits the load from the tongue to the base. The tongue can be released from the buckle only by lifting the handle 45.

FIGURES 5 and 6 show that when the handle 45 is depressed and the lock is lifted by the action of the tongue entering the buckle, the edge 48 of the lock is moved out of engagement with the edge 47 of the handle. When the end 15 of the lock is engaged in the opening 18 in the 3,165,805 Patented Jan. 1 9, 1965 The other end a) base, as shown in FIGURE 2, the edge 48 of the lock and edge 47 of the handle are in contact. By lifting the handle, its edge 47 is pressed against the edge of the loclgand this lifts the protuberance 15 out of the opening 15 in the tongue, and the tongue can be easily slid out of the buckle.

The end 5 of the belt is engaged by the buckle in any suitable fashion. In the arrangement'shown, the flattened ends 79 and 71 of the knurled roll '72 are slidably engaged in slots '73 in the ears 24 and 25 attached to the base of the buckle. The end 5' of the belt is brought into the buckle and up over the knurled roll 72 and then down between this knurled'roll and the upward projection '75 of the base of the buckle (FIGURE 4) and out from under the end of the buckle. Then, as pull is applied to the belt, the knurled roll is moved rearwardly in the slots 73 and squeezes the end of the belt between the roll and the upward projection 75' so that the greater the pull the tighter this end of the belt is held in the buckle. A square bar may be substituted for the knurled roll.

The invention is covered in the claims which follow.

What I claim is:

1. The combination of a safety-belt buckle and a tongue fastened to opposite ends of a safety belt, the tongue comprising an opening through which locking means passes in engagement with the base of the buckle, the belt being attached to the portion of the tongue in front of said opening and the tongue being located above and in contact with the forward portion of the base, a rearwardly facing abutment portion on the base,.the locking means being pivotally supported above the tongue with the upper portion thereof directed rearwardly from its pivoted support and the locking means being downwardly and reversely bent from said upper portion and terminating in a bottom portion which is locked against the base, the load-bearing portion of the locking means being said reversely bent portion which transmits the load from the rear portion of the tongue to said abutment portion of the base.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which the locking means includes a downwardly directed boss immediately forward of the reversely bent portion which is so arranged as to be engaged by the tongue to lift the locking means as the tongue is slid into position over the base from the front of the buckle.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which the locking means is a plate substantially flat from edge to edge except 'for the boss, there being an opening in the base, the bottom edge of the locking means making contact with the base only in one area at the rearwardly facing edge of said opening in the base.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,869,260 Phillips Jan. 20, 1959 2,893,088 Harper July 7, 1959 2,964,815 Sereno Dec. 20, 1960 3,013,317 Weber Dec. 19, 1961 3,078,538 Brown Feb. 26, 1963 FOREIGN PATENTS 174,212 Sweden Feb. 7, 1961 

1. THE COMBINATION OF A SAFETY-BELT BUCKLE AND A TONGUE FASTENED TO OPPOSITE ENDS OF A SAFETY BELT, THE TONGUE COMPRISING AN OPENING THROUGH WHICH LOCKING MEANS PASSES IN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE BASE OF THE BUCKLE, THE BELT BEING ATTACHED TO THE PORTION OF THE TONGUE IN FRONT OF SAID OPENING AND THE TONGUE BEING LOCATED ABOVE AND IN CONTACT WITH THE FORWARD PORTION OF THE BASE, A REARWARDLY FACING ABUTMENT PORTION ON THE BASE, THE LOCKING MEANS BEING PIVOTALLY SUPPORTED ABOVE THE TONGUE WITH THE UPPER PORTION THEREOF DIRECTED REARWARDLY FROM ITS PIVOTED SUPPORT AND THE LOCKING MEANS BEING DOWNWARDLY AND REVERSELY BENT FROM SAID UPPER PORTION AND TERMINATING IN A BOTTOM PORTION WHICH IS LOCKED AGAINST THE BASE, THE LOAD-BEARING PORTION OF THE LOCKING MEANS BEING SAID REVERSELY BENT PORTION WHICH TRANSMITS THE LOAD FROM THE REAR PORTION OF THE TONGUE TO SAID ABUTMENT PORTION OF THE BASE. 